U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/916,984 (which has been incorporated herein by reference) has been published as United States Patent Application Publication No. 2011/0100874. The reader is presumed to be familiar with the disclosure of this published application. This published application will be referred to herein as the “874 application.”
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/753,918 (which has been incorporated herein by reference) has been published as United States Patent Application Publication No. 2013/0140217. The reader is presumed to be familiar with the disclosure of this published application. This published application will be referred to herein as the “217 application.”
Both the '217 application and the '874 application teach the utilization of hydrocarbons such as methane to attach to radicals formed when an alkali metal such as sodium reacts with the heteroatoms or metals atoms contained within the feedstock. This use of hydrocarbons in the above-recited applications replaces hydrogen gas which has traditionally been used when reacting sodium with oil. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,788,978, 3,791,966, 4,076,613 all disclose the use of hydrogen gas when sodium metal is reacted with oil.
However, the use of hydrogen with sodium and oil has several disadvantages. One such disadvantage is that the hydrogen used in these sodium/oil reactions is typically produced via the “steam methane reforming process.” This process is generally discouraged because, during this process, carbon dioxide—a greenhouse gas—is emitted. Thus, alternative radical capping substances (e.g., organic materials) may be preferred over hydrogen.
When an alkali metal reacts with a petroleum feedstock and interacts with heteroatoms such as metals, sulfur and nitrogen in the feedstock, the metals, heteroatoms, etc. will be reduced to form the metals themselves as well as alkali metal sulfides and nitrides. During this reaction, organic radicals may be formed which preferably are reacted with a substance other than the same organic molecule originally bonded to the heteroatom or with another feedstock molecule. If the radical reacts with the organic molecule originally bonded to the heteroatom, undesirable coking may occur. Likewise, if the radical reacts with another feedstock molecule, undesirable polymerization may occur. For this reason, an additional radical-capping species, such as methane, etc., is used in the reaction.
It would be beneficial however, if this process for upgrading the oil feedstock material (using an alkali metal) could be integrated with the process for forming the feedstock (e.g., the process for extracting the heavy oil, oil shale, shale gas, etc.) Such “integration” could provide additional benefits and could result in increased efficiencies. Such an integration process is disclosed herein.